Friday, August 19, 2011

Carter's Birth Story

Carter's here! He arrived on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 6:11 pm. Here's the story of his arrival starting Monday, August 15, 2011.

Monday I had a prenatal appointment for one of the bi-weekly non-stress tests. I was 38 weeks 2 days and the midwife checked to see if my cervix was getting ready at all for birth. I was 1 cm and 50% effaced but the monitors weren't picking up any contractions so I wasn't expecting any progress or anything to happen anytime soon. Monday evening I did have some contractions but I could barely feel them and they didn't have any sort of rhythm or anything.

Tuesday I continued to have mild contractions throughout the day, off and on that didn't hurt at all. Tuesday evening they picked up in how often but not intensity so I went to sleep around midnight after telling Max to quit worrying and if they picked up to where we needed to go to the doctor, they would wake me up.

Wednesday I woke up not feeling any contractions at 6:30 am. I laid in bed after going to the bathroom playing Sudoku on my phone trying to fall back asleep. At 7:06 I felt a pop and then started gushing fluid. I stood up and woke Max up. He called our moms while I went to the bathroom, cleaned up and put on a pad for the trip to the hospital. We loaded the hospital bags into the car, along with Eva and drove to Ally's to drop Eva off and pick Ally up. We checked into the hospital at 8:00 am, got the strip test to ensure my membranes had actually broken which came back a blaring positive and got admitted. They hooked me up to the monitors and checked me, I was 2 cm dilated and 90% effaced and Carter's head was in position at -2 station and she remarked how she could feel his hair. After being on the monitors for awhile, I wasn't having very many contractions so my Mom, Ally, Max and I went and walked the hospital halls for 30 minutes, with the threat of pitocin being started at noon if I hadn't progressed enough. When we got back to the room at 9:30 am, I was hooked up again and was having very few "tiny" contractions that were starting to get painful and an iv was inserted, although not hooked up. The reason for the iv was because of the gestational diabetes dx, if anything went wrong they wanted to have in just in case. I was pretty upset at being told I was having few tiny contractions and having an iv stuck in my wrist when I wanted to go natural.

I laid in the jacuzzi tub a little and used the birthing ball a bit. At noon I was at 4 cm and the contractions were starting to get really painful with a lot of pressure. I got back in the tub and tried to breath through the contractions. At 1 I was a 5 to 6. At 2 I was barely a 6. I couldn't take the pain anymore and shortly after asked for the epidural. I was really happy at this point that the iv was already in. I was given fluids and fentenal through the iv while we waited for the epidural. The most painful part was the numbing medicine and holding still while still being able to feel the pressure of the catheter being placed. That was about 2:45. After the epidural was put in they checked me at 4 and I was at 7 cm, 100% effaced and he was at a +2 station. They started pitocin when the epidural took because my contractions were not being picked up on the monitor, at all. It was a completely flat line.

Soon after, Carter's heart rate dropped below 90 for 5 minutes. They put me on oxygen and lowered the pitocin, he was hyper stimulated. They also took off the external monitors and put internal ones on. Turns out I was contracting, strongly, in a fashion that is typically seen in labors where the baby is facing the wrong way. Carter was not facing the wrong way. I would have a very strong contraction, it would drop down a bit and then rise again to a less strong contraction before giving me a break. The nurse later said that is what I was experiencing every 2-3 minutes in the tub before I requested the epidural. Carter continued to have problems with his heart rate decreasing so the pitocin was turned off and I was put back on oxygen.

At 4:45 I had a lip of cervix left that could be moved out of the way and they had me try a practice push. Carter's heart rate dropped during it so we sat and waited for him to move down on his own for about an hour. Around 5:45 I did another practice push, I want to say he was at +4 station then. The nurse (who we LOVED!) made a comment about him needing a hat. I started officially pushing at 5:57 pm and his heart rate was dropping really low almost immediately. I was on oxygen the whole time for pushing and they were having me take deep slow breaths. I only pushed for 2 contractions when I was warned that they were going to have use the vacuum if we didn't get him out quickly. On my 4th contraction he was delivered with the vacuum at 6:11 pm. They put him on my belly and Max cut his cord before them moved him up to my chest. My midwife made a comment about the cord being between (not wrapped around I would assume) his shoulder and the birth canal and that being why his heart rate was decelerating.

The nurse picked him up to go weigh him and she held him up for me to see his face. He decided then was a good time to pee, on me! He weighed 6 lbs 14 oz, 20 inches long, 13.5 inch head. I'll add the rest of the day/night story later, I'm gonna try to take a nap before Carter wakes up in case he starts another all-night feed-fest tonight!

About Me

My world became complete on 8/17/11 when we welcomed our first born into this world. Carter has brought so much joy and purpose to my life. I'm a puppy raiser on hiatus for now, can't wait to have a leash in my hands again!